Marines in Kuwait Getting Ready for War

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, February 6, 2003

Associated Press Writer

With mortar and tank fire booming in the distance, U.S. Marines stretched out in the Kuwaiti desert and adjusted their rifle sights to zero in on paper targets 25 yards away.

The Marines want their weapons set perfectly in case President Bush orders them to invade Iraq. On Friday, Bush urged the U.N. Security Council to "make up its mind soon" about confronting Iraq over its prohibited weapons' programs _ or the United States and its allies will disarm Saddam Hussein on their own.

About 113,000 U.S. troops are deployed in the Gulf and 100,000 more could be in place by the end of the month. Among those forces are the combat engineers from the 1st Marine Division of Camp Pendleton, Calif., who have been here three weeks.

Facing one set of plywood-backed targets, about 80 Marines lined up with their M-16A2 assault rifles and let off three rounds. A few yards away, another group of about 20 lined up with their M-240 light machine guns, each also firing three shots at a time.

After each volley, the men then go up to the target to measure how far away the shots are from the bulls eye, adjust their sights, and return to measure once more.

In combat, experts estimate that even the best soldiers hit their target only one time for every 15 shots. Every chance to practice, every opportunity to fine tune the sights, the better the hit ratio becomes.

The men fine-tuning their rifles Friday were mostly teenagers, many of them are so new to the military they are still getting used to carrying their weapons.

Also Friday, the military identified Spc. Brian Michael Clemens of Kokomo, Ind., as the 19-year-old soldier who died Thursday in a Humvee accident while on patrol near Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Four other soldiers suffered minor injuries.

No other details were immediately available

While all of the Marines in Kuwait have completed basic training, many joined less than a year ago. Non-commissioned officers like Staff Sgt. Thomas Pierce of Wichita Falls, Texas, is responsible for getting them combat-ready.

"We're training so everyone is prepared for whatever is thrown at us," said Pierce, a 34-year-old Gulf War veteran. "Everything is repetition training, so it will become second nature."

Pierce said the equipment the Marines have now is better designed and more convenient than what he was issued in 1991, when he cleared a mine field to open a path for U.S. troops crossing into Kuwait to force out the Iraqi army.

The combat engineers will clear many more minefields if U.S. troops go to war in the coming months. Combat engineers also set up portable bridges, construct defensive positions or destroy any structure built by the enemy to hinder an attack.

Besides the target practice, the men have also spent the last weeks in the desert getting ready for whatever faces them, said Cpl. Lemoine Logan from New Orleans, La.

At 24, he's older than most of the men, many of whom were surprised by the cold desert nights and how simple it can be to get lost in the featureless landscape. The most important thing, he said, is "situational awareness: knowing where you are, who you're with, where the others are and making sure everyone is accounted for."

Behind the uniforms and rifles, the young Marines are no different than others in their late teens and early 20s. They talk about music and girlfriends, teasing each other during a lunch of prepackaged meals consumed while sitting cross-legged in the sand.

Pfc. T.J. Powell, an 18-year-old from Tuskegee, Ala., said he never expected to go into combat, but had always known it would be a possibility during his nine months of training. He said his unit is ready to fight _ and that he feels the American people are behind them.

"I'd like them to pray for us _ please pray and don't worry," he said. "We're going to do the job and come back home."